Following Freedom of Information requests, several hospital trusts have admitted to having more than 1,000 vacancies across their services, raising concerns over patient safety.

It has been predicted that the process of recruiting new staff may be complicated by Brexit, which has raised uncertainties for EU citizens working or considering working in the UK.

Labour's shadow health spokesman Justin Madders told Sky News that the latest figures had not come as a surprise.

He said: "We've been warning for some time that the Government were simply not doing enough not only to recruit enough staff but to retain existing staff.

"We know that Brexit has led to a massive reduction in the EU nationals that work here in the health service and we know that figures show that more midwives are leaving the profession than joining it for the first time in the history of the NHS."

Video:Labour: Govt should be welcoming nurses to UK

He said it should be up to the job of government to show that in professions such as doctors and nurses where there are recruitment problems, the UK would welcome people who have those skills into the country.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Staffing is a priority - that's why we have invested in the frontline and there are almost 32,400 more professionally qualified clinical staff including almost 11,800 more doctors, and over 12,500 more nurses on our wards since May 2010."

Separate figures from the NHS statistical authority show that the total NHS workforce went up by 1.9% between April 2017 and April 2016.